Moldovan bakers skeptical as to authorities’ promise to distribute wheat transparently

Moldovan bakers have told Info-Prim Neo they greet the Government’s decision to provide them wheat from the state reserve. Yet many of them do not trust the authorities’ promises to distribute the wheat in a transparent way. Gheorghe Marchitan, the manager of a bakery in Briceni district says he tried to get wheat from the state in 2002, but failed. “I kept asking, but without any success. The initiative is good, provided it is accomplished,” the manager said. Another manager of a bakery from Sangerei district, Joian Vladimir, hinted the state distributes the wheat according to its interests, and the small businesses would never have access to it. Leonid Bershadsky, the manager of a Chisinau-based Moldovan-Russian company, believes floor price could even drop somewhat, if the Government’s plan to give bakers wheat from the state reserve proves not to be just a declaration. “For the last year this backup was meant only for Franzeluta, not for private entrepreneurs. Personally I would take the wheat, if I am proposed. I tried once, but I was obstructed,” the entrepreneur said. Sources from district councils criticize the Government for using the state reserves without being any emergency related to any natural disaster. Others suggest thus the Government tries to get rid of the wheat stored for years, and to fill the reserve with new wheat in September. The bakers have been interviewed by Info-Prim Neo accidentally on the principle of the first found. On April 17, the Government decided to free 7,000 tonnes of wheat from the state reserve to distribute to bakeries in those 32 districts. Prime deputy vice-premier Igor Dodon, the Minister of Economy and Trade, said the distribution would be done as in the most transparent way. The businesses to enjoy the support should have had a bakery for the last ten months and shall not add commercial addition to the bread price, larger than planned. The wheat will be supplied as a loan till the end of September, 2008, when the wheat is to be returned into the state reserve.